An AI-animated short film won a festival prize that included a national theatrical run, but it never made it to the screen.
Screenvision Media, a third-party company that buys pre-show ad time at chains including some AMC locations, announced that the award winning short Thanksgiving Day would receive a national two-week theatrical run as its Frame Forward AI Animated Film Festival top prize. Before the film ever screened, online backlash erupted, and AMC proactively opted out.
The inaugural Frame Forward AI Animated Film Festival awarded its top prize to Igor Alferov's Thanksgiving Day, an AI-animated short made with Gemini 3.1 and Nano Banana Pro.
After online outrage, AMC opted out. "AMC was not involved in the creation of the content or the initiative and has informed Screenvision that AMC locations will not participate," the company said in a statement.
The context matters: AI content has played in theaters before, including at AMC. Runway's 2025 AI Film Festival screened in IMAX at 10 theaters.
